Full House is an American television sitcom that originally ran in primetime from September 22, 1987, to May 23, 1995, on ABC. The series ran as part of ABC's TGIF Friday comedy lineup for its first five seasons before moving to Tuesday nights, where it aired for the remainder of its run.

Contents

Premise

Set in San Francisco, California, the show chronicles Jesse Katsopolis (John Stamos), a young and handsome musician, who is recruited by his brother-in-law, widowed father Danny Tanner (Bob Saget), to help raise Danny's three daughters, D.J. (Candace Cameron), Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin), and Michelle (Mary Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen). Danny's best friend Joey Gladstone (Dave Coulier), a quirky comedian, is also enlisted. A short while prior to Jesse and Joey moving in, Danny's wife (and Jesse's sister) Pamela was killed in a hit and run accident. Initially, Jesse is uncertain if his life is going in the right direction after making the life-altering decision to help raise the girls. Over time, the three men as well as the children bond and become closer and more loving to one another.

Later in the series, Danny's cohost (and later Jesse's wife), Rebecca "Becky" Donaldson, (Lori Loughlin) joins the household. The family finds a dog and keeps one of her puppies, Comet, as a pet. Finally, Jesse and Becky's twin sons, Nicky and Alex, become additions to the family. Two notable additional characters are Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber), D.J.'s best friend and the Tanner family's wacky neighbor, and Steve Hale (Scott Weinger), D.J.'s food-penchant jock boyfriend from school.

Production

Production and filming

The series was created by Jeff Franklin and executive produced by Franklin, along with Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett.

The series was produced by Jeff Franklin Productions and Miller-Boyett Productions, in association with Lorimar-Telepictures (1987–1988), Lorimar Television (1988–1993), and then by Warner Bros. Television (1993–1995).

Although the series was set in San Francisco, and the opening credits featured a row of classic Victorian houses on Steiner Street, the sitcom itself was taped at Warner Brothers Studios in Los Angeles. The only episode to have actually been taped in San Francisco was "Comet's Excellent Adventure", the first episode of Season 8. There were also a few episodes where the cast would shoot in other locations, most notably Hawaii in the 3rd season premiere "Tanner's Island", and at Walt Disney World for the episodes "The House Meets the Mouse" (Parts 1 & 2) at the end of Season 6.

Casting

Bob Saget was the producers' first choice to play Danny Tanner, but because of his work as an on-air contributor to CBS's The Morning Program, John Posey was cast as Danny for the original pilot. However, when Saget was fired after CBS decided to revamp their morning show, Posey was let go, and the pilot re-shot with Saget.

John Stamos' original character name, "Jesse Cochran," was changed after Season 1 to "Jesse Katsopolis". The change in last names was due to Stamos wanting his character to better reflect his Greek heritage. In one episode, Jesse admits his born first name was "Hermes", which actually happens to be his real-life paternal grandfather's name.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen nearly left the show after the 1st season because their real-life mother was concerned about them missing out on having a "normal" childhood. After a significant raise in salary from the show's producers, she agreed to let them continue. Their mother also let them stay due to the fact that they became so popular.

During the show's run, only four main characters were added to the main cast. Lori Loughlin, who played the role of Rebecca Donaldson (later Katospolis), was initially scheduled to appear in six episodes in Season 2 as Danny's co-host on Wake Up, San Francisco.
However, producers decided to write her character into the show and give her a permanent role in the 3rd season.

Season 5 saw the debut of characters Nicky and Alex Katsopolis, who were the twin sons of Jesse and Rebecca. The characters Nicky and Alex were created to complement the popularity of the Olsen twins. However, the new characters did not achieve any popularity as the producers had hoped for. The "baby" versions were played by Daniel and Kevin Renteria until the end of Season 5. Beginning in Season 6, Blake and Dylan Tuomy-Wilhoit played the roles of toddlers Nicky and Alex until the series ended.

The last character added in was Steve, played by Scott Weinger, who is D.J's boyfriend in the 6th and 7th season

Theme song and opening sequence

Theme song

The show's theme song, "Everywhere You Look", was performed by Jesse Frederick; Frederick co-wrote the song with Bennett Salvay and series creator Jeff Franklin. An instrumental version of the theme song was used in the closing credits, and in the opening credits in some early syndication runs, although the song was almost always truncated to the chorus for broadcast. Seasons 1 through 5 used a longer version of the theme song. However in syndicated airings, the line "you miss your old familiar friends, but waiting just around the bend" replaced the lines starting with "how did I get delivered here, somebody tell me please..." (After ABC Family acquired the series in 2003, it became the first television outlet to air the long versions of the theme since the series' ABC run, included in some episodes from the first five seasons). In later seasons, the song was shortened (as was the case with the theme songs of fellow Miller-Boyett sitcoms Step by Step, and to a lesser extent Perfect Strangers and Family Matters), until it was down to about 42 seconds in Season 8.

Opening credits

In the beginning, the six original characters were shown either at home, or in various shots in San Francisco. Beginning in season 4, the opening credits for the adults were also filmed in San Francisco, as well as the last shot of the opening credits of the show, which features the cast having a picnic in Alamo Square in front of the row of Painted Ladies in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco. Contrary to popular belief, the red-doored Victorian where the Tanners live is not one of these houses. The address of the Tanner house was mentioned in "Blast From the Past" as being located at 1882 Girard Street in San Francisco. The actual location of the house used for exterior shots in the series is 1709 Broderick Street. It was not until season 8 that the opening credits were changed to feature the entire cast in various locations around San Francisco. From seasons 1 through 5, select shots from the opening credits were seen in the closing credits as well, switching to still shots of episode scenes starting with season 6.

The role of Michelle was credited as being played by "Mary-Kate Ashley Olsen" from seasons 2 to 7 (the duo was only credited in the closing credits in season 1, as "Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Fuller Olsen"; though in syndicated reruns, they are also credited in the opening credits as the former) because the show's producers did not want audiences to know that Michelle was played by twins. Ashley's name was made to appear as Mary-Kate's middle name in the titles (the role of Michelle was played by twins because California state law regulates the number of work hours for a young child; therefore it is common for the role of one baby in a TV or film production to be played by twins). Sister series Family Matters did the same thing in its first season with twins Joseph and Julius Wright, who portrayed Richie Crawford as a baby, with the twins credited as Joseph Julius Wright. In season 8, with the entire opening credit shots revamped for the last time, the Olsen twins were now given special billing in response to the popularity they earned as separate performers over the years. Appearing last in the credits, they were credited as "And Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen as Michelle". Fittingly, Mary-Kate is the twin appearing in the shot, but the girl in the painting is Ashley. Starting with season 3, Lori Loughlin was featured in the opening credits, however it was only in episodes she appeared in. From season 4 onward, she was featured in the opening credits of every episode. It was not until season 5 that Andrea Barber was added to the opening credits, despite her recurring role on the show since the first season. The long opening was cut when the show started regular rotation upon the end of first-run airing.

Episodes

Ratings

Full House aired on Fridays from September 22, 1987 to August 1991, which spanned the show's first four seasons, and later became the flagship program of ABC's newly launched TGIF block. During the 1987-88 season, however, the show did move to Tuesdays briefly, and then aired twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays for a few months in order to help the series build an audience. It remained on Fridays permanently for the next three seasons, as the show's ratings became more respectable. The show was moved to Tuesdays for Season 5, and remained there until its ending in 1995. While Season 1 was not very successful, the show quickly became popular during Season 2 as it was placed immediately following the established hit show Perfect Strangers, and from Season 3 onwards it was ranked among the Nielsen ratings' Top 30 shows. By Season 4, it jumped to the top twenty and remained there until Season 7 (including Seasons 5 & 6 earning their peak spots in the top ten).

In 1995, despite the fact the show was still rated in the top 25, ABC announced that it was canceling the show after the 8th season due to the increasing production costs. The new WB network wanted to pick up the show for a 9th season, but John Stamos announced that the 8th season would be his last (he was mainly upset about Full House defecting from one of the "Big Four" networks to a network which had not yet received full national distribution). Eventually, the other actors announced they were also ready to move on to other projects, thus ending the show's eight-year run. The one-hour finale was watched by 24.3 million viewers, ranking #7 for the week and attracting a 14.6 household rating and a 25 percent audience share.

Broadcasting history

United States

Canada

CTV (1987–1995)

CTS (1987–Present)

Comedy Gold (2010–present)

Australia

Seven Network (1988–1994)

Nine Network (late 1990s)

7TWO (Early 2010–September 2010)

Feature film

In a December 2008 news story, it was reported that John Stamos was planning a reunion movie. Reports, however, indicate that this idea was quickly withdrawn, because most of the cast was not interested.

In 2009, Stamos announced that a feature film based on the show is still on. Stamos told The New York Daily News, "I'm working on a movie idea, but it wouldn't be us playing us. I'm not 100% sure, but it would probably take place in the first few years." Stamos has Steve Carell and Tracy Morgan in mind for the roles of Danny and Joey respectively.

Other media

DVD releases

List of Full House DVD
Warner Home Video released all eight seasons of Full House on DVD in Region 1 between 2005 - 2007. A complete series set containing all 192 episodes was released on November 6, 2007.

Full House DVD Release

DVD Name (box top color)

Season

Release Date

Full House (Dark Red)

One

TBA

Full House (Orange)

Two

TBA

Full House (blue)

Three

TBA

Full House (Red)

Four

TBA

Full House (lime)

Five

TBA

Full House (Purple)

Six

TBA

Full House (Green)

Seven

TBA

Full House (Magenta)

Eight

TBA

All Full House SeasonAbove Color Code line

One to Eight

Look Above

Time frame

The books, most of which were published between 1993 and 2001, along with the 2004 Dear Michelle series, span from Stephanie's sixth-grade year (season 7 on TV) to her ninth-grade year. No book has been written to date to show her in high school, nor Michelle starting middle school. The Flamingos are featured less and less in Stephanie books, and the last Club Stephanie trilogy shows Stephanie and her friends becoming friends with the Flamingos by the end.